


Of broken bones and puppy paws

by seraphicbane



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Dogs, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Old Married Couple, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, canon sucks, really just so much fluff with minimal real plot, so basically a two part series of next to meaningless fluff and silliness bc i desperately need it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28000152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphicbane/pseuds/seraphicbane
Summary: A patient that runs an animal shelter comes in with a broken bone and Levi bends over backwards to convince Nico once and for all that they absolutely need to adopt a dog together.
Relationships: Nico Kim/Levi Schmitt
Comments: 12
Kudos: 44





	Of broken bones and puppy paws

**Author's Note:**

> full disclosure it is very late and i'm very tired and my bunny demanded pets throughout the entire proofreading process so i claim all of my mistakes right here right now!
> 
> other than that i hope this offers you even just one smile and a break from, you know.... everything! the second part will hopefully come in the next few weeks <3

”Mrs. Gardner, could you describe to me how you sustained this injury?”

The patient shook her head with a tired chuckle and placed her hand on Levi’s arm. “Just Angela is fine, dear.”

“Of course,” Levi nodded and offered her an empathetic smile before inquiring about her injury again. 

“Oh, it’s barely anything,” she dismissed the bone sticking out of her knee with such ease that Levi would’ve had a hard time not laughing out of sheer disbelief if he wasn’t actively trying not to pass out. “My precious German Shepherd grew up with many puppies at the shelter but lately we’ve had an increased amount of them dropped off to us. Naturally, he’s trying to fit in, keep up with them, you know? So as the little ones chased me and the other volunteers in the snow, my 130-pound angel followed their lead and jumped up to me from behind, tackling me to the ground covered in ice.” 

She reached into her jacket pocket for her phone and opened it to her lock screen, turning it towards Levi. 

“Ah,” he smiled, taking in the endearing image of his patient embracing a dog just around half her size set as her wallpaper. “Well, I understand why you can’t seem to be upset when the culprit is this adorable.”

She laughed heartily. “I couldn’t even if I tried. Besides, I would argue that one measly broken bone can be much more easily repaired than the hurt of an unfairly reprimanded dog. They really take it to heart.”

It was then that Nico walked in, biting back an amused smile. “Dr. Kim, orthopedic surgeon,” he introduced himself, extending his hand to shake hers gently. “I’ll be determining how sound that argument of yours is.”

Angela raised her eyebrows, her eyes glimmering with amusement. “With all due respect, doctor, I’ve run an animal shelter for three decades. My knowledge of dogs far outweighs your knowledge of bones simply because you can’t have even been alive for three full decades,” She remarked lightheartedly.

“Well, that isn’t entirely unfair,” Nico admitted with a smile, took one glance at the patient information Levi had written down on the pad he was holding, and pulled the nitrile gloves off his hands.“Still, you’re going to have to trust me. The faster an open patellar fracture is operated the sooner it’ll heal. We need to get you into surgery right away so you’ll be back to running around with those dogs in no time.”

She sighed dramatically but the corner of her mouth tugged up into a genuine smile. She had no real doubt that she was in good hands and Levi struggled not to beam with pride at just how at ease Nico had made her feel in such a small amount of moments when once he’d been convinced he wasn’t capable of such a thing at all. “Alright, I trust you, Dr. Kim.”

He leaned down to gently squeeze her shoulder and turned to Levi, his expression automatically softening upon meeting his eyes. 

“I’ll go book the OR immediately,” Levi spoke up before he could even begin to request for him to do so.

“Thank you, Dr. Schmitt,” Nico smiled as he left to prepare for the surgery in a flurry of dark blue and white, brushing his fingers across the inside of Levi’s wrist as he passed him.

Approximately three hours and one successfully repaired knee later, as they were making their way down to the cafeteria, Levi very casually directed the conversation back to their patient’s animal shelter endeavors. Well, as casually as a person could after months of trying to convince someone that a puppy would be a great addition to their household to absolutely no avail. 

Sure enough, he got about three sentences into his carefully planned monologue when Nico interrupted him. “We’re not getting a puppy, Levi,” he said matter-of-factly.

“I wasn’t trying to insinuate that we should!” he exclaimed defensively, stopping in his tracks just to emphasize how offended he was by the baseless accusation.

Nico hummed dubiously, squinting his eyes at him as if limiting his line of vision a little bit would help him see through his boyfriend’s very thinly veiled lies.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Levi huffed and turned to walk away, leaving Nico holding back laughter in his wake.

When he sat down beside him in the canteen with his lunch a few minutes later, Levi chose the single most juvenile route to redemption and decided he wouldn’t acknowledge Nico’s presence at all in protest of his insane allegations of him having a (very real) dog adoption agenda. Though the single most ridiculous approach available, this worked in his favor perfectly well until Nico very unceremoniously broke all of their rules about displays of affection in the workplace. 

”Hey, come on,” He muttered, reaching out to turn Levi’s head toward him and leaning in all in one swift motion to capture his lips in a kiss very quickly broken by laughter.

”Now I know it’s true what Taryn says about men’s pants having better pockets because they need someplace to carry all the audacity,” Levi remarked in a stage whisper and shoved at his chest, not even a trace of true irritation to his feigned expression of dismay.

”I’m sorry?” Nico tried, grinning.

”Well you should be,” he said, quietly contemplating flinging a forkful of salad in his face. ”But you’re gonna have to be more specific.”

”I’m sorry I accused you of trying to convince me to adopt a dog for the third time this month?”

Levi turned to look at him, frowning. ”Just imagine how nice it would be. Coming home every day to have someone happily waiting on you. Always making someone smile when walking down the street. Buying those adorable human food shaped squeaky toys? I literally can’t think of negatives here, Nico.”

”How about the fact that we have 18-hour workdays and barely any free time? All the cleaning? Walks when there’s a snowstorm?” He supplied helpfully, all of the cons very obvious to him.

Levi groaned and stabbed his fork through a cherry tomato, pointing it at him. ”You have to know I’m really questioning why I’m in love with you right now.”

Nico caught his lower lip between his teeth and bit back the entirely endeared smile he absolutely could not let Levi see right now. ”I think I can handle that,” he said with a kiss to his temple right before leaving for another surgery.

The next time they saw one another was much later on in the day, and by that point Levi had taken his time to mostly get over his perfectly reasonable grudge. So he thought, at least, until they walked up to Angela to check on her as she had woken up post-operation. 

”Surgery went without a hitch and you’ll begin physical therapy within a few days to ensure a fast recovery,” Nico told her with a warm smile, making sure she knew every detail of care they were putting in to get her back to work as soon as possible.

”Oh, I’m so grateful. Thank you, Dr. Kim,” she squeezed his hand, relief written all over her smiling face. ”The shelter means everything to me. Spending my days running around helping all those dogs really makes me feel joy like any other.”

”That is really incredible,” Levi chimed in. ”Not many things are capable of bringing a person that kind of happiness, huh,” he added, arguably more pointedly than he intended to as he was putting the words together in his head.

Nico turned to look at him then, one elegant eyebrow raised. Levi innocently shrugged a shoulder, like he was just making a general observation. Not many moments passed before they were shaken out of the makeshift staring contest by their patient suddenly chuckling.

”I’ve observed enough people pulling the rope with their significant others about whether or not they should adopt a dog to know the look anywhere,” She said fondly, amusement audible in her voice. “This is that look.”

“Um, yes, there may have been some arguments about that topic,” Levi admitted, fiddling with the patient files in his hands awkwardly.

“So you’re the one here who needs convincing, Dr. Kim?” Angela asked, brows raised, her expression one of someone who was ready to take on a challenge she’d won many times before. 

Nico chuckled, lowering his head. “Yes, that would be me." 

"Once I'm back on my feet in a couple of months, come stop by the shelter. It'll almost be Christmas by then! What could be better than meeting some dogs over the holiday season?" 

He looked between her and Levi, both of them with coy smiles on their faces, and he got the distinct impression that they were trying to get him to fall into a very specific trap of paws and bones that weren't for him to fix. "We'd be happy to," he found himself saying regardless.

"Wonderful," Angela beamed. This was very clearly not her first rodeo.

With promises to check on her again the next day and settle on a date for visiting the shelter once they knew more about her recovery timeline, they left her to read the true-crime novel she said she'd just started.

"I have a feeling that being willing to do anything for you might not work out in my favor," Nico mused as he closed the door to the room behind them, and the look of pure joy on Levi's face proved his hypothesis true immediately. It was slightly unnerving what he realized he was ready to do to make sure he would look that way as often as possible... Including entertaining the idea of becoming parents to a puppy, evidently.


End file.
